Your Complete Guide To Who's Promised What In The Vic Election

Victorians have the privilege of waking up and smelling the democracy tomorrow morning as the populace converges on polling booths around the state to have their say in shaping the future, at least until the next election.

If you're still not sure about who you should be putting your weight behind while armed with nothing more than a 2B pencil and some merciless ranking ability, we've gone to the trouble of handily compiling the key points, news and opinion pieces surrounding the election and what each party's policies mean for live music in Victoria.

The music industry came to the fore as a primary concern for Victorian politicians as early as September, when Music Victoria first unveiled its report card of the various parties' policies, laying down the challenge for policy transparency to not only the incumbent Liberal government but the challenging Labor and Greens factions.

Soon after, the ALP stepped up to the plate with an early points-getter — the promise of a rock'n'roll Hall Of Fame, as part of a planned $22.2 million package, which also includes artist, venue and manager grants, the planned creation of The Music Market, to offer industry guidance, and an expanded industry mentoring program to boost support for musicians and suits alike.

​With an impassioned expose on the state of live music support from the present government, former Bushwhackers frontman Dobe Newton offered up several points to ponder about another four years of live music under the current gatekeepers.

"Instead of supporting the sector, its workers and its millions of fans in order to grow the economic pie, the current State government has consistently reduced funding through its major agency Arts Victoria, while continuing to provide significant support for other sporting and cultural events/organisations that are far less popular and certainly contribute far less to the city and state coffers," he wrote.

With things starting to look shaky for the LNP, the playing field suddenly diversified, and quickly — the Kris Schroeder-led Basics Rock'n'Roll Party scraped to meet registration deadlines before iconic muso Tex Perkins threw his name into the hat as an independent candidate.

That upheaval gave the Coalition just enough time to put together a rebuttal to the ALP's package announcement, pointing to the party's allegedly bad track record in other areas and clarifying their areas of focus when it comes to the industry, including new laws and streamlined licensing control, reducing the burden of regulations on smaller venues, $500,000 as part of a Live Music Noise Attenuation Assistance Scheme, and a review of existing noise regulations; the latter two promises clearly tying in to the city's adoption of agent of change laws earlier this year. The Coalition also promised $1 million to fund Music Victoria's Regional Music Action Plan, as well as a further $400,000 in operational funds over four years, while opponents such as Labor were pledging $13.4 million to save the Palais Theatre. 

And, of course, we've heard some thought-provoking ideas from an array of industry figures. These include the chairwoman of Music Victoria, Ashley Admiraal, who was impressed by Labor's proposed establishment of the Creative Agency, venue owner Jon Perring and his detailed breakdown of the pros and cons of each party from a working man's perspective, and the chief executive of Music Victoria himself, Patrick Donovan, who is no less analytical, but also palpably excited about the possibilities the election holds for live music, no matter the outcome. He also wants you to know that giving funding to music isn't the same thing as a handout.

So, there you have it — read up, read well, get educated, and head to those polls tomorrow morning knowing that you're making a well-informed choice with the scene's best interests at heart. As Donovan so succinctly puts it: "Whichever party wins, there is at least something on the table for music."